Ina's Butterflied Chicken

This week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe choice was fantastic! I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant to take this one on. We are not huge meat eaters, but, a challenge is a challenge and I have vowed to cook the good eats of Ina and besides, chicken with lemon, garlic and rosemary, who could turn that down? Stefany of Proceed With Caution chose this recipe of Ina's. Thanks to her, we had an absolutely delicious meal last night and I have another great recipe to prepare for guests. The great thing about most of Ina's recipes are that they can be prepared in advance, as this one was. Just unroll the bird and pop on the grill, have a little wine, and within 30 minutes or less, dinner is on the table.

Now, I have never deboned anything! I studied a few of the videos on the web, and decided to leave this to the experts. I wanted to serve something that resembled chicken and not a dish that looked liked Edward Scissorhands had prepped it. My first call to a "large" grocery store butcher was hysterical. When I asked if he could butterfly and debone a chicken he answered that, "he had never done that before" and that I, "must be watching one of those cookin' shows on TV". Ok, on to the next town. I called Heinen's, where I spoke with Doug. "No problem", he said. "Great, I will pick it up tomorrow", I answered. So, next day, off I went, about a 35 minute drive to pick up my bird, as well as a few other little foodie items. He did a great job, so if you read this Doug, thanks go out to you. The bad thing is that this was such a great way to cook the bird, you will be hearing from me again!

The recipe is very straight forward and easy to prepare. I only made one bird, so I will give the quantities here that I used. Grilling was a bit tricky, just take it easy unrolling it on the grill. I cooked it skin side down, then used 2 large spatulas to flip. It cooked up in the time as instructed. I served the bird with cheddar mashed potatoes, a fresh fig (from Heinen's) for garnish and a green salad full of fresh grape tomatoes from the garden. For dessert, well, that's another post to come, but here's a hint; I have lots of fresh corn and an ice cream machine.....

Ina's Butterflied Chicken
serves 4

2 tbl chopped fresh rosemary leaves, plus 1 sprig
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Good olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 roasting chicken (2 1/2 to 3 pounds each), deboned and butterflied
1/4 lemon, thinly sliced

Mix the chopped rosemary, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper together in a small bowl to make a paste.






Place the chicken on a sheet pan, skin side up, and loosen the skin from the meat with your fingers. Place the paste under the skin of the chicken. Rub any remaining paste on the outside and underside of the chicken.

Turn the chicken skin side down and scatter the lemon slices and sprigs of rosemary over the chicken (I stripped the leaves and scattered them). Season with salt and pepper. Roll the chicken up, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Heat a grill with coals. Spread the coals out in 1 dense layer and brush the grill with oil. Unroll the chicken, place it on the grill and cook for 12 minutes on each side.

Okay, we have a gas grill, so, oil the grill and make sure it is nice and hot. Keep the grill about medium high heat and begin grilling the bird skin side down. Carefully flip, using 2 spatulas ( i did lose a bit of the skin as you will see in the photo). My chicken cooked in the time she gives.

Here is the cooked bird, straight from the grill. I cut it in half, then in half again, separating the white and dark meat and placed them on a generous scoop of cheddar mashed potatoes.